Martial Solal had an amazing 1960s: his music for Jean Luc Godard’s ‘Breathless’ has gone into cinematic history. Solal also met Ross Russell. Russell founded Dial records and in the 1940s that label recorded some of Charlie Parker’s most compelling music. A man of many talents, later Russell drifted away from music and did not return until the sixties. He dreamt of starting a new label and invited Solal to record. The sessions, three in all, took place in 1966 at a Glendale studio that happened to possess a Steinway piano. recording finished and the tapes were never issued in fact were virtually lost until Jordi Pujol from Fresh Sound Records bought them and has issued them on two CDs.

Solal was at his peak on those days in California. The themes are all well known, straight out of the jazz songbook music by Parker, Monk, Gillespie and Powell.

Solal poses one of the greatest puzzles in jazz. Why is he so consistently underrated and underappreciated? You only have to listen to this CD to hear unrivalled invention, inspiring ideas, exuberance, vitality and virtuosity. Because Solal has chosen themes that are in the memory of many enthusiasts of the music, we can hear and follow how the invention develops and admire the concision, virtuosity.

Solal eviscerates compositions: ‘Scrapple from the Apple’ is played on the high notes and the low notes. The speed of execution is breath taking. ‘Night In Tunisia’, the longest track at over eight minutes, is percussive, the left hand hammers out the theme and then moves into stride piano. Solal seems to reluctant to finish as he makes more and more variations.

Charlie Parker’s ‘Now’s The Time’ has a jaunty introduction and the hucklebuck makes an appearance in the upper reaches of the keyboard. The conversation between the left and right hand is never more marked than in this interpretation.

‘Blue Monk’ illustrates the impish humorous side of Solal. He does things with the theme that Monk could only dream of.

Occasionally, only occasionally, Solal becomes portentous. His interpretation of ‘Lover Man’ is an example. It is as if he is reluctant to slow down to become reflective.

In the 1940s Russell’s Dial recordings were not celebrated for their clarity and definition. Here, the recording captures the range and depth of the Steinway as Solal explores the extremities of the keyboard, rumbling the bass and ringing out the high notes. The 24-bit remastering adds to the sheen.

This is one of the greatest solo piano recitals in Solal’s discography: it is also one of the greatest recitals in jazz. On occasions, when you hear solo piano you feel you need the variation of a bass player or a drummer. Not here, they would confine and restrict the piano player, inhibit the changes in rhythm and tempo. This is jazz piano of a very high order.